Flip flops should come with a warning label.

Surely, you must be wondering what happened to me. Why haven't I posted for 2 weeks? You probably thought that I must be outside bounding through green fields and riding my bikes to new heights.

Wrong.

I've really been depressed and de-motivated after what I'll call "the incident".

What happened you ask? Well, first let's review Newton's laws of motion:

1. First law: Every body remains in a state of rest or uniform motion unless it is acted upon by an external unbalanced force.
2. Second law: A body of mass (m) subject to a force (F) undergoes an acceleration (a) that has the same direction as the force and a magnitude that is directly proportional to the force and inversely proportional to the mass, i.e., F = ma.
3. Third law: The mutual forces of action and reaction between two bodies are equal, opposite and collinear. This means that whenever a first body exerts a force F on a second body, the second body exerts a force −F on the first body. F and −F are equal in magnitude and opposite in direction.

For this story, we'll say that I'm the mass (m), my forward motion is the acceleration (a), and the concrete sidewalk is the opposite force (-F).

I was casually walking into a store with my Mom to shop. It was raining and I was wearing flip flops. All of the sudden, I had a realization that I was hydroplaning.

"This may not end well", I said to myself.

My right foot instinctively shot out to stabilize my balance and in doing so, the friction force of my foot on top of the flip flop was compromised due to rain. Therefore, my toes went off the edge of my flip flop directly. into. the. concrete.

So if we apply Newton's Law, my rather large mass, times the acceleration of me hurrying into a store to get out of the rain exerted a rather large force all onto one unlucky toe. The toe next to my big toe.

You know that feeling you get when something is really, really wrong? Well I didn't have that feeling just yet. I was in the mode of standing on the hurt toe with my other foot to apply constant pressure. I wasn't sure what I would see if I looked down. My Mom told me it would be okay if I cried, but I do want to point out that I did not cry. I acted very strong. I acted like this sort of thing happens all the time and that I have appendages of steel. I was also very proud that I managed to stay upright despite the hydroplaning.

For several minutes I stood there, afraid to stop the constant pressure. The pain was pretty intense. Following those few minutes I started to feel like I was going to pass out because I remembered my fear of finger and toe injuries.

Yes, I have a phobia of injuring fingers and toes. You know how when a football player jams a finger on the field and he goes to the sidelines and the trainer pops it out, slaps him on the butt, and tells him to get back in the game? Well that is one of my biggest fears. Not the butt slapping part, but the finger pulling part.

The next phase of my coping turned into denial.

"I'm fine Mom. It'll be okay." I said.

But it wasn't. It hurt like a &$^@. I could tell that something wasn't right. For the next 4 days, I hobbled around thinking that it would get better on it's own without any external pulling. However, by Day 5, I was less afraid of the pulling and just wanted to know why it wasn't feeling better. So, I went to the doctor. The doctor did not pull on it. The doctor sort of laughed and said that wearing flip flops in the rain isn't a very good idea. I disagree. A billion Chinese people do it every day.

The x-ray came back and showed why it wasn't better. There was a triangular chunk of bone floating at the joint where it should be attached. Ouch.

No activities for 6 weeks, the doctor said. No biking, no high heels, and certainly no running. Ironically, I can't even wear flip flops because the part that goes between the toes hurts too much.

So I was depressed. I was looking forward to getting back into my training routine to prepare for my next triathlon on 2/26. Now that plan is out the window.

But, I'm trying to pull myself out of the depression because this soon will pass. Just hope my motivation returns when my body is healed.